1. Field of the Invention
The invention disclosed broadly relates to the field of electronic commerce and more particularly to a system and related tools for the secure delivery and rights management of digital assets, such as print media, films, games, and music over global communications networks such as the Internet and the World Wide Web.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of global distribution systems such as the Internet for distribution of digital assets such as music, film, computer programs, pictures, games and other content continues to grow. At the same time owners and publishers of valuable digital content have been slow to embrace the use of the Internet for distribution of digital assets for several reasons. One reason is that owners are afraid of unauthorized copying or pirating of digital content. The electronic delivery of digital content removes several barriers to pirating. One barrier that is removed with electronic distribution is the requirement of the tangible recordable medium itself (e.g., diskettes or CD ROMs). It costs money to copy digital content on to tangible media, albeit, in many cases less than a dollar for a blank tape or recordable CD. However, in the case of electronic distribution, the tangible medium is no longer needed. The cost of the tangible medium is not a factor because content is distributed electronically. A second barrier, is the format of the content itself i.e. is the content stored in an analog format versus a digital format. Content stored in an analog format, for example, a printed picture, when reproduced by photocopying, the copy is of lesser quality than the original. Each subsequent copy of a copy, sometimes called a generation, is of less quality than the original. This degradation in quality is not present when a picture is stored digitally. Each copy, and every generation of copies can be as clear and crisp as the original. The aggregate effect of perfect digital copies combined with the very low cost to distribute content electronically and to distribute content widely over the Internet makes it relatively easy pirate and distribute unauthorized copies. With a couple of keystrokes, a pirate can send hundred or even of thousands of perfect copies of digital content over the Internet. Therefore a need exists to ensure the protection and security of digital assets distributed electronically.
Providers of digital content desire to establish a secure, global distribution system for digital content that protects the rights of content owners. The problems with establishing a digital content distribution system includes developing systems for digital content electronic distribution, rights management, and asset protection. Digital content that is distributed electronically includes content such as print media, films, games, programs, television, multimedia, and music.
The deployment of an electronic distribution system provides the Digital Content Providers the ability to achieve fast settlement of payment through immediate sales reporting and electronic reconciliation as well as gain secondary sources of revenue through redistribution of content. Since the electronic digital content distribution system is not affected by physical inventory outages or returns, the Digital Content Providers and retailers may realize reduced costs and improved margins. Digital Content Providers could facilitate new, or augment existing, distribution channels for better timed-release of inventory. The transactional data from the electronic distribution system could be used to obtain information regarding consumer buying patterns as well as to provide immediate feedback on electronic marketing programs and promotions. In order to meet these goals, a need exists for Digital Content Providers to use an electronic distribution model to make digital content available to a wide range of users and businesses while ensuring protection and metering of digital assets.
Other commercially available electronic distribution systems for digital content, such as real audio, A2B from AT&T, Liquid Audio Pro Corp. from Liquid Audio Pro, City Music Network from Audio Soft and others offer transmission of digital data over secured and unsecured electronic networks. The use of secured electronic networks greatly reduces the requirement of Digital Content Providers of distributing digital to a wide audience. The use of unsecured networks such as the Internet and Web allows the digital content to arrive to an end-user securely such as through the use of encryption. However, once the encrypted digital content is de-encrypted on the end-user's machine, the digital content is readily available to the end-user for unauthorized re-distribution. Therefore a need exists for a secure digital content electronic distribution system that provides protection of digital assets and ensures that the Content Provider(s)' rights are protected even after the digital content is delivered to consumers and businesses. A need thus exists for rights management to allow for secure delivery, licensing authorization, and control of the usage of digital assets.
Another reason owners of digital content have been slow to embrace electronic distribution is their desire to maintain and foster existing channels of distribution. Most content owners sell through retailers. In the music market these U.S. retailers include Tower Records, Peaches, Blockbuster, Circuit City and others. Many of these retailers have Web sites that allow Internet users to makes selections over the Internet and have selections mailed to the end-user. Example music Web sites include @tower, Music Boulevard and Columbia House. The use of electronic distribution can remove the ability of the retail stores from differentiating themselves from each other and differentiate themselves from the content owners, especially on the Web. Therefore a need exists to provide retailers of electronic content such as pictures, games, music, programs and videos a way to differentiate themselves from each other and the content owners when selling music through electronic distribution.
Further information on the background of protecting digital content can be found from the following three sources. "Music on the Internet and the Intellectual Property Protection Problem" by Jack Lacy, James Snyder, David Maher, of AT&T Labs, Florham Park, N.J. available online URL http://www.a2bmusic.com/about/papers/musicipp.htm. Cryptographically protected container, called DigiBox, in the article "Securing the Content, Not the Wire for Information Commerce" by Olin Sibert, David Bernstein and David Van Wie, InterTrust Technologies Corp. Sunnyvale, Calif. available online URL http://www.intertrust.com/architecture/stc.html. And "Cryptolope Container Technology", an IBM White Paper, available online URL http:///cyptolope.ibm.com/white.htm.